WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump finally got his North Korea-style military parade for his birthday Saturday, which featured tanks and rocket launchers rolling down the streets of the capital city before smaller-than-expected crowds.
“Every other country celebrates their victories, it’s about time America did too,” Trump said in a brief, eight-minute speech.
It followed the two-hour parade down Constitution Avenue, during which Trump primarily sat, appeared bored, but occasionally stood to salute the passing troops and military hardware.
Trump and his administration have claimed that the parade was actually to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Army’s founding by the Continental Congress in 1775, not Trump’s 79th. It’s unclear whether the Navy and the Marine Corps, branches also founded in 1775, will similarly get $45 million parades this year. Neither Trump nor the Pentagon has mentioned any such plans.
What’s more, preceding Trump at the lectern, Vice President JD Vance described Trump’s coming remarks as “the main event” of the evening.
Despite Trump’s attempts to hype the event, attendance appeared light — there were considerably fewer people on the National Mall on Saturday than there would be for a typical Fourth of July celebration. And attendance at Trump’s parade was dwarfed by the millions who showed up at roughly 2,000 anti-Trump “No Kings” protests in cities and towns all over the country.
Trump spoke less than 1,000 feet away from the spot he delivered a speech that riled up tens of thousands of his supporters he had called to the city on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump told them to march on the Capitol to intimidate his own vice president into awarding him a second term, even though he had lost the 2020 election. More than 140 police were assaulted by Trump’s mob, with one dying hours later and four others dying from suicide in the coming weeks and months.
Trump, who avoided military service during the Vietnam War thanks to a doctor’s note diagnosing him with “bone spurs,” has wanted a military parade since he took office. His transition team before his first term tried to have tanks and other military equipment for his inaugural parade, “Red Square/North Korea-style,” according to a source. But, the Pentagon was able to nix the idea, citing the authoritarian optics as well as the likely damage to Washington, D.C.’s streets from tanks that weigh 75 tons and roll on steel treads.
He tried again two years into office for the Fourth of July, but backed off. The vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time reportedly told Trump that a military parade was “what dictators do,” while leaked cost estimates in the tens of millions of dollars persuaded Trump to accept a rally speech with military equipment parked in front of him instead.
After returning to office despite his attempted self-coup and the criminal prosecutions it triggered, though, Trump did not back away from his desire for a military parade this time.